Sections

Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Breaks Records, Stops ‘Despacito’ Short

Taylor Swift attends the Met Gala on May 2, 2016. Her recent single "Look What You Made Me Do" has broken several chart and streaming records in the week-and-a-half since its release. (Photo: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)

In a little more than a week since its release, Taylor Swift’s new single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” has ridden a wave of attention into record-breaking metrics. Driven by an expertly cryptic promotional campaign, the first single from Swift’s forthcoming album Reputation set first-day records on YouTube and Spotify and drew the biggest weekly streaming and sales numbers for a single yet this year, according to Billboard.

Now, “Look” is the new No. 1 song in the country. It broke Adele’s record (of 61.6 million plays) for most-streamed debut week by a female artist, with 84.4 million U.S. streams. And, in what must be a bitter disappointment for Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Swift displaced “Despacito” atop the Hot 100, where it has sat for four months. If “Despacito” had lasted one more week at No. 1, it would have set an all-time record for most weeks at the top of the chart.

Swift is the first woman to top the Hot 100 chart this year.

As mentioned, “Look” also set records the first day it was released, breaking Spotify’s high-water mark for first-day streams — set by her friend Ed Sheeran earlier this year — with 10,129,087 plays in a single day. It was also the most streams generated by any song in one day since Spotify launched.

On video sites, “Look” also broke first-day numbers, drawing in 43.2 million plays on YouTube its first day of release, unseating PSY’s 2013 single “Gentleman.” Over on Vevo, the song also broke first-day views with more than 30 million.

Meanwhile, Swift released another new song this past Sunday — the more generally focused but equally self-examining and faux-lectro-luxe “… Ready For It?” — but all anyone seems to care about is “Look What You Made Me Do.” That new single drew 3.74 million plays on Spotify in the two days since its release over the long weekend — numbers that would be impressive for anyone, if that anyone hadn’t done what “Look” just did.

About KQED

Support is also provided by Yogen and Peggy Dalal, Diane B. Wilsey, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Helen Sarah Steyer, the William and Gretchen Kimball Fund, and the members of KQED